"We're raising money for cancer research" is a sentence people nod along to without picturing anything specific. So here is the specific version.
Research happens in stages
Basic research asks how does this even work? Scientists study cells in a lab to understand why a cancer grows, or why it resists a drug. Nothing here becomes a treatment for years. Almost every treatment that exists started here.
Translational research takes a lab finding and asks could this be a medicine? This is where a promising molecule either survives contact with reality or quietly doesn't.
Clinical trials test a treatment in people, in phases, starting very small. Phase I checks safety. Phase II checks whether it does anything. Phase III compares it to the current best option.
Implementation is the unglamorous last mile: making sure the treatment reaches people who aren't near a major research hospital.
What a small donation actually funds
Small donations rarely fund a whole trial. What they do fund is real:
- Lab supplies — reagents, culture plates, the consumable stuff a lab burns through weekly
- Stipends for student and early-career researchers
- Travel and childcare grants so families can actually get to a trial site
- Sample and data collection that later studies build on
Why childhood cancers need this specifically
Childhood cancers are, thankfully, rare. Rare also means a smaller commercial incentive to develop drugs for them, and fewer eligible patients per trial. Philanthropic funding fills gaps that markets don't.
How we split what we raise
Every dollar we raise goes to one of two places, and we publish the split: materials (paper, envelopes, postage — the cards themselves) and research, which we grant to established cancer research organizations.
You can see the current breakdown on the Donate page.